"Fine, fine!" Houki giggled. "Who shall I start with? How about Tamahome? He is really strong and brave. He actually rescued the priestesses of Suzaku and Seiryu from some real bandits. Then he asked them to pay! Miaka wasn't happy about that!"
"Who's Miaka?" Rika asked.
"She's our priestess."
"Why does that name sound so familiar?" Aya wondered aloud.
"How should I know?" Rika asked with annoying logic. "I haven't been with you at all."
"That girl at the airport!" Aya burst out. "She said her name was Miaka. And she said both Mieri and I would be going on a journey! She's the one that gave us that stupid book!" Aya scowled. "She said I'd need my forgiving nature for my adventure. What was that supposed to mean? And she told Meiri to take care of 'them'. Did she mean the seishi? She said that she hadn't taken very good care of them...that there were only three left."
"Tasuki, Chichiri, and Tamahome!" Rika shouted excitedly. Boshin stirred with a tiny whimper. "Oops," she whispered. "Maybe we should be a little quieter."
Houki nodded gratefully. "He's going to be terribly fussy later if he doesn't get his nap."
"Well, now we know where all of the priestesses came from," Rika said finally. "They must have come from our world into yours using the Universe of the Four Gods."
"So you're world must also have a sacred scroll that chooses the priestesses for us and transports them here," Houki said thoughtfully.
Rika shifted in embarrassment. "Yeah, something like that. But about Tamahome..."
"Oh!" Houki started. "Yes, well, Tamahome is nineteen now. He's a terrible miser. He counts every coin he makes. Once he made a terrible fuss because he couldn't find one little coin out of three hundred! It turned out that it had rolled under his bed."
"How charming," Aya muttered sarcastically.
"Well, the reason is that he was sending the money home to his family. Evidently, he was the only money maker in a family of six. His mother had passed away, his father was injured for quite a while, and he had two little brothers and two little sisters to take care of!" Houki explained.
"Oh, how horrible!" Rika sympathized.
"Besides that, he's really very loving. His special power as a Suzaku seishi was prowess in martial arts."
"They had powers?!" Aya perked up.
"Uh-huh. Next is Hotohori, I suppose. He was so lovely! He would have made a beautiful looking woman. It's very odd being married to someone who is prettier than you!" Houki laughed. "He was very vain about it though. His power was fencing and sword work. He'd been trained since he was a child, so he was very good. Nuriko was an eighteen year old girl in Hotohori's harem. She would have been twenty by now. Eventually, they discovered that she was a he. Nuriko was very feminine until the end, Tasuki tells me. And Tasuki was very close to Nuriko. His power was super strength. In fact, that's how they discovered he was a Suzaku seishi. A building had collapsed on Miaka and Tamahome. Nuriko just waded inâin one of the outfits you are wearing I might add!âand started tossing huge chunks of rubble over his shoulder! Chunks as big as the bed you are sitting on!"
"Wow!" Rika breathed. "That's amazing!"
Houki nodded, "Yep! Nuriko was killed by Ashitare, one of the Seiryu seishi. The next seishi we discovered was Chichiri. Or really, he discovered us. He saved Miaka from an assassination attempt on her life. Chichiri's very quiet. He wears a mask all the time. I never saw him with it off, but Tasuki is his very best friend. He tells me that Chichiri has a scar over one eye. So he wears a mask that is constantly smiling to keep people from feeling uneasy around him."
"What are Chichiri's powers?" Aya asked.
"Chichiri is a little bit of a magician. He can freeze opponents, pop up anywhere he wants to, and things like that. It's a bit amazing to watch some of the things he can do! He's twenty as well. Let me see..." Houki paused in thought. "The next to be discovered was Tasuki. Like I said, he was the leader of a band of bandits even back then. But an 'evil, fat freak' to use Miaka's words had taken over in his absence. He ended up kidnapping Miaka and trying to rape her. Hotohori and Nuriko were mistaken for girls, of course. They kinda decimated any loose bandits that weren't away. Tamahome was so mad. He was out for blood. They were just about to rescue her when Tasuki showed up. He kidnapped Miakaâagain!âand disappeared. But Miaka convinced him to let her help him take back control of his band. So they took back the band. Tasuki got back his iron fan, and we discovered that Tasuki is a seishi!"
"Hold up," Aya interrupted. "What was so special about an iron fan?"
Houki looked surprised, "I forget that you don't know! Tasuki's tessen is very special. With a small spell that not many people even know about, he can shoot fire from it!"
"Can you say what it is?" Aya whispered softly. "I mean, are you allowed to tell anyone?"
"Ha!" Houki burst into laughter. "Anyone within hearing distance could hear what the spell was! He shouts it out every time he uses it! It's Rekka-Shinen. But only certain people can use the fan. Tasuki is one of those chosen few. He's also pretty good at martial arts, and he's super fast."
"What about his temperament?" Rika asked, practical as always.
Houki sighed heavily. "'Temperament' would be the correct word. He has a terrible temper. He's very...how shall I put this...open?...with his feelings? He's about as open as a book. And the biggest chapters in that book would be rage and anger."
"Oh," Aya smirked. "I'm willing to bet he'd be no match for me."
Rika giggled. "You'd probably win that bet!"
"I don't know about that," Houki insisted. "But on to the next Suzaku seishi! Next was...Mitsukake. He's the oldest of the Suzaku seishi. He would be twenty-two. He was pretty quiet most of the time. His power was healing. He could totally heal a person once a day. He was the only one that wasn't killed even indirectly by a Seiryu seishi. He was tending to the wounded of the final battle with Chichiri. Chichiri hasn't really talked about it much, but the people that were there said that he just looked around and saw nothing but the injured. He was a doctor, you know. I guess he just lost hope. He gave his life for everyone there. He sent his life energy to the wounded. It left him and healed everyone there. It even brought back to life some soldiers from both Kutou and Konan. Chichiri was furious when they started fighting again immediately. He basically told them that Mitsukake had given his life for them and that they ought not waste it with more fighting."
"That's so sad," Rika sniffed. "He gave his life for those people!"
Houki nodded sadly. "Yeah, I think he was very brave. But the last seishi is, I think, the bravest of all. Chiriko was only thirteen when he died. They were on their way to save Miaka from Nakago. Another of the Seiryu seishi Miboshi was trying to stop them. Miboshi had a very strange power. He could take over people's bodies and use them as his own. He was in a little boy; but when they inflicted a death wound on the poor child, Miboshi abandoned that body and took over the unsuspecting Chiriko."
"No!" Aya cried out. "He didn't! He's only a little boy!"
"But Miboshi didn't care," Houki informed her. "The other seishi wouldn't hurt Chiriko, of course, so Chiriko helped them out. He basically drove the item that Miboshi used to control demons into his heart." Aya gasped. "Mitsukake even offered to heal him, but Chiriko refused knowing that Miboshi would be healed, too. So that's how he died."
"But what about him?" Rika asked. "What was he like before he died?"
"Well, Chiriko's power was great intellect. He was thirteen and had passed a test that men of forty or more were still studying for! He was the one that saved the rest of the seishi from Amiboshi, another Seiryu seishi. Amiboshi had impersonated him, and was on the verge of killing Miaka and the rest. But Miaka seemed to think that Amiboshi was really good inside." Houki frowned in thought, "As far as anyone could tell, Amiboshi basically allowed himself to drown because he couldn't take being a part of the evil Seiryu seishi. That's the last any of us heard of him."
"That's all of them," Aya seemed kinda down.
"That was great, Houki!" Rika enthused. "They all were so amazing!"
Houki nodded proudly. "Yes, we were lucky to have such wonderful seishi. We could have had evil ones like poor Kutou."
Rika looked out at the sky. "Oh! Look! It's dark already!"
Houki also started in surprise. "I hadn't realized it was that late. I'm sorry." She took Boshin from the bed. "I'll just let you get to sleep. I hope you enjoy your rooms," she bowed as much as she was able with Boshin in her arms and left.
Rika sat there for a minute. "I guess I'll go, too. I want to write all of this down on something! It's so amazing!"
"Okay," Aya smiled tiredly at her friend. "You go to bed. I think I'm going to go to sleep, too."
"'K!" Rika smiled happily at her friend. "Goodnight, Aya."
Aya smiled back. "Goodnight, Kat."
Long after Rika had left the room, Aya lay on her bed staring at the ceiling. All the candles had been blown out, and only shadows could be seen. The seishi sound so fun. But over half of them are gone. I'll never get to meet them. And Hotohori never got to even know about his son. It's just not fair. She rolled over onto her side. This is so stupid! And it's the same in our world! People get killed for no reason at all. Or at least no good reason. Why did they have to die before I got a chance to meet them? Couldn't they have waited a couple years? Her thoughts were turning back to the Suzaku seishi again. Why?!
Unable to stand it any more, Aya rolled out of bed. She tiptoed across the floor, careful to make no sounds. Reaching the door, she slid it silently open. She paused for a minute, listening for any sounds. No one appeared and asked her what she was doing. No one came to tell her to return to bed. She crept out into the night.
They died so young. Chiriko especially. He was barely a teenager! She jumped the rail that separated the open hallway from the courtyard. They were all young. The oldest was only twenty! What's up with that?! She skirted the edge of the small pond that was in the center of the courtyard. I hate death, she decided. It's pointless and stupid. There should be a way to stop it or something. "I wish they were all alive!" Aya finally cried out to the sky. "Suzaku! Seiryu! Genbu! Byakko! All of you!" Aya was angry now. She sank to her knees in the wet grass. She was alone by the pond's shore. "I want them back!" she raged at the gods of this world. "I want them back." Aya's shoulders shook as sobs racked her body. She cried for herself a bit, but mostly she cried for the poor seishi that gave their lives for their kingdom. It wasn't often that Aya gave in to her emotional side; but when she did, she gave full vent.
A deep voice seemed to resound in her head, "All of them?"
"Yes!" she sobbed. "Yes!"
"Very well, then. It shall be done."
A guard passing by the courtyard stopped dead in his tracks. Usually this was a boring round. Nothing ever happened within the palace itself! But tonight there was a strange girl next to the pond. She was surrounded by a pure white light. It seemed to pulse through her, it was so strong. Her golden hair was in the air as if blown by a hitherto unfelt wind. Her eyes were closed, and she didn't seem aware of anything much less his presence. Then she opened her eyes and stared right through him. The white light that surrounded her filled her eyes and shone through! But she did not see him or anything really. Whatever she was staring at was not of this world. He lost all nerve at this point and whirled around to fetch his superior.
A few minutes later, he returned with not only his superior, but ten more guards and Houki, too. "See, Majesty? There she is! Just like I told you!"
Houki stared in surprise at the girl that knelt in her courtyard. A girl that not hours before, she had spoken with as she would have with anyone else! Now that same girl was filled with a power that was obviously not her own. At that moment, the white power surrounding Aya faded; and she collapsed to the ground. Houki watched several seconds more to ascertain that Aya would not awaken. "Take her to her room. Do not speak of this to anyone. Especially do not speak of this to her! She is obviously unaware of the power she possesses. It would not do to frighten her unnecessarily."
The guards nodded one by one. They understood. Three of them moved to pick up Aya. They carefully shuffled off to her room. The rest of the guards returned respectively to their beds or their posts.
Houki alone stood there for a moment or two more. What was she to do now that this had happened? What could she do? Nothing, she decided after a moment. This is the will of the gods. They are not subject to my approval. So thinking, she turned around and headed for her own bed to put the matter out of her mind. At least until the morning.
Many miles away, in another land altogether, a young man rose from the rubble. He glanced at his hand, turning it over to look at it more closely. He wasn't sure how he had come back, but he was going to make good use of whatever time he did have. There were only a few people that he cared to revisit. And one of them was an old...friend...of his. So as he started scanning for the life forces of those that were like him, he had only one thought. Tamahome...
Another boy closer to the capital also awoke after years of forgetfulness. He had been living there all along; forgetting what he had once valued most. Well, he remembered now and only the gods above could keep him from finding his brother now. Already he could sense the life forces of his former team members. But he wasn't interested in them any more. He was looking for a life force that was identical to his own...
